The ecclesiastical avante-garde metal of Liturgy is finally here to grace us with its spirit-filled grandeur for the first time since their 2020 album, the magnificent Origin of the Alimonies. Today, Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix has announced that she and her ever-evolving project has a new record on the horizon — out through Thrill Jockey on March 24, 2023, to be exact — a double album titled 93696. Liturgy have shared the title track, which you can hear below.
However, if March seems like an awfully long time before we can attend to Hunt-Hendrix’s awe-inspiring version of hymnals and worship in full, thankfully, she and the band have treated us with a new mini album in the meantime.
Viciously titled As the Blood of God Bursts the Veins of Time, the band’s four-track offering features a run of three songs, “93”, “36,” and “696”, that operate together as an alternate interpretation to the title track from their forthcoming double album.
Across the first three songs, the band – now featuring guitarist Mario Miron, bassist Tia Vincent-Clark and drummer Leo Didkovsky alongside Hunt-Hendrix – actively wrestle to contain a pummeling, almost-but-not-quite punk drum-and-guitar combo by draping it with an elegant lacing of strings, piano, and other baroque instrumental flairs. Some moments trick listeners into believing they’re about to experience the band’s knack for peaceful chamber music, but then Hunt-Hendrix injects each movement with the omnipresent gusto of her shrilling voice, scratching and clawing in harmony with the rest of the band’s ferocious playing.
However, the last cut, “संसार”, may be the most impressive of this short offering as it diverts drastically from the first three moments with a beautiful art-pop atmosphere and vocal work. In fact, it sounds as if Hunt-Hendrix was trying to envision what it would sound like if the mystical Jarboe and majestic Jónsi lent each of their respective creative breaths toward a single moment, and yet it ends up exhaling with her unique genius.
“संसार” may not be the enrapturing, grand piece of eviscerating post or black metal that we’re accustomed to from Liturgy, but it is an experimental new wrinkle that indicates more profound meaning and new sonic territory as we inch closer to March 24, 2023.
Check out both “93696” and the As the Blood of God Bursts the Veins of Time below or on streaming platforms.
You can purchase As The Blood of God Bursts the Veins of Time and pre-order 93696 on Bandcamp now.
Don’t forget to follow Liturgy on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
And you can get an early experience of 93696 at these live dates:
Oct. 6 – Amsterdam, NL – OT301 [tickets]
Oct. 7 – Paris, FR – Les Instants Chavires [tickets]
Oct. 8 – Bristol, UK – Strange Brew [tickets]
Oct. 9 – London, UK – 229
Oct. 11 – Manchester, UK – Soup Kitchen [tickets]
Oct. 13 – Brussels, Belgium – Botanique # [tickets]
Dec. 7 – Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery ^ [tickets]
Dec. 8 – Pittsburgh, PA – Mr. Smalls Theatre ^ [tickets]
Dec. 9 – Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups ^ [tickets]
Dec. 10 – Chicago, IL – Reggies – Peace Simulation Festival ^ [tickets]
Dec. 11 – Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme ^ [tickets]
Dec. 13 – Toronto, ON – Garrison ^ [tickets]
Dec. 14 – Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz PDB ^ [tickets]
Dec. 15 – Cambridge, MA – Middle East Upstairs ^ [tickets]
Dec. 16 – Portland, ME – The Space ^ [tickets]
Dec. 17 – Brooklyn, NY – Saint Vitus ^ [tickets]
Feb. 11 – Philadelphia, PA – Subterranean Dissonance Fest [tickets]
# w/ Lingua Ignota
^ w/ Elizabeth Colour Wheel and Infant Island
